It
was not the usual, formal embassy party, but rather a friendly get-together
among off-duty diplomats. As the senior envoy in the Sudanese capital of
Khartoum, Saudi Arabian Ambassador Abdullah al Malhouk had invited other
mission heads to say farewell last Thursday to George Curtis Moore, 47,
a popular U.S. Foreign Service officer and first-rate Arabist. After serving
as the ranking U.S. diplomat in the Sudan for more than three years, Moore
was being replaced by Ambassador Cleo A. Noel Jr.,
54, and returning to Washington for reassignment. At around 7 p.m., after
Moore had been presented with a silver tray and the guests were starting
to leave, the cool Khartoum evening was suddenly shattered with terror.

A pair of Land Rovers screeched up to the front
gate of the four-story embassy villa. One rammed a limousine waiting for
Noel. Seven men leaped out firing automatic weapons at random. The departing
diplomats scurried for cover. "Run, run, run for your life!" shouted the
Dutch charge d'affaires. Some, including the Russian and British ambassadors,
managed to escape. The French ambassador got away by scaling a seven-foot
garden wall. The Papal Nuncio in Khartoum slipped out a side gate.

But Noel, a career officer in his first ambassadorial
post, was nicked in the leg by a bullet and Belgian Chargé d'Affaires
Guy Bid was hit in the foot. They, along with others, were forced back
into the embassy. Once they got inside, the terrorists rounded up more
diplomats, including the Hungarian and Yugoslav envoys who unsuccessfully
tried to hide in the roof garden.

The invaders quickly identified themselves
as members of Black September, the Palestinian guerrilla group that murdered
eleven Israelis at the Munich Olympics last summer. Holding a sort of mock
court in which the captives were judged according to their country's attitude
toward the Palestinian cause, they singled out as hostages the two Americans,
Noel and Moore (whom they bound and beat), Belgian Eid, Saudi Host Al Malhouk
and Jordanian Chargé d'Affaires Adly al Nasser. The choices did
not make complete sense. Though the U.S. and Jordan have strongly opposed
the Palestinian guerrilla movement, Saudi Arabia has been ambivalent, giving
financial support to both Jordan and the terrorists. As for Eid, it seemed
he was mistaken by his captors for a Jew; in fact, his forebears were Egyptian.
One diplomat unsuccessfully sought by the commandos was the West German
ambassador, who missed the party at the last minute because of another
engagement.

With the five hostages chosen, everyone else,
including the Saudi ambassador's wife and children, was released. Each
freed diplomat was given a mimeographed sheet of paper with a statement
of apology to the Saudi government for using its embassy as the scene of
the attack, and to Sudan for staging it on Unity Day, a national holiday
celebrating the first anniversary of the end of Sudan's 17-year-long civil
war.

Sudanese authorities reacted swiftly but cautiously.
Police formed a cordon around the embassy but stayed two blocks back for
fear of endangering the hostages' lives. President Jaafar Numeiry called
his Cabinet into emergency session. Assured by the Cabinet that there would
be no attempt to storm the embassy, the terrorists allowed a doctor inside
to treat the wounds of Noel and Eid. Then came a long string of demands
delivered by telephone.

The terrorists wanted nothing less than the
release by the U.S. of Sirhan Sirhan, assassin of Robert Kennedy; the release
by Jordan of "our leader," Abu Daoud, and 16 "colleagues" who were arrested
last month for plotting to overthrow King Hussein's regime; the release
by West Germany of two criminals sympathetic to Black September; the release
by Israel of all female Palestinian prisoners. If their demands were not
met, the terrorists said, they would start executing the hostages one by
one, "beginning with the American ambassador."

Two deadlines—7 a.m. and 2 p.m. —passed without
any of the nations agreeing to the demands, and without the terrorists
making good their threats. Sudanese officials talked endlessly on the phone
in the hope that the Black Septembrists would eventually back down. At
one stage there was a report that Sudan had agreed to provide a plane to
fly them and their hostages to the U.S. Nothing came of it. The unpredictable
terrorists set another deadline of 8 p.m.

The third deadline passed in eerie silence
broken only by the swirling of a sandstorm. Then the phone rang at the
U.S. embassy. It was a call from Noel. "Is there any news from the governments
involved?" he asked a surprised First Secretary M.A. Sanderson Jr. "They
have been contacted," Sanderson replied, adding: "Are we being overheard?"
"Affirmative," said Noel. "A high official is arriving from Washington
and may be able to do something," said Sanderson. "What time will he arrive?"
asked Noel. "He is due in half an hour," replied the First Secretary. "That
will be too late," said Noel, and the phone went dead.

Midnight Call. At 9:39 p.m., reported TIME'S
Joseph Fitchett, who was on the scene, muffled bursts of automatic-weapons
fire came from inside the embassy and echoed over the neighborhood. The
sandstorm grew fiercer and dogs howled as garbage cans were blown along
the streets. A police officer suggested that the terrorists had just been
shooting at a light accidentally played on them. But at midnight, a Sudan
official called the U.S. Embassy and confirmed the fears of Mrs. Noel and
Mrs. Moore, who had been waiting out the horror together: both their husbands
were dead. The Belgian hostage, Eid, was apparently shot at the same time,
though he died later.

At week's end, amid worldwide revulsion over
the cold-blooded murders, the fate of the other two hostages remained uncertain.
Also inside the embassy was the Saudi ambassador's wife, who had insisted
on rejoining her husband after their children were safe. The terrorists
demanded safe air passage for themselves and their hostages to an unknown
destination, but the Sudanese refused to provide a plane. They no longer
seemed to be in a bargaining mood, and ordered the killers to surrender.
Ambassador Cleo A. Noel Jr. and George
Curtis Moore - do you remember these names? You should. Ambassador Noel
and Moore were among a group of men seized and held hostage by Yassir Arafat’s
Black September terrorists during a reception at the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum.
Their lives hung by a thread, a thread that Yassir Arafat ordered cut.
His words ordering the execution of these top American officials and a
Belgian diplomat were recorded by the Israelis who gave the tape to the
State Department and President Nixon in March 1973. This was later confirmed
by General Ariel Sharon.

Cleo A. Noel Jr. and
George Curtis Moore were among a group of men seized by Black September
terrorists during a reception held at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum
[Sudan]. The terrorists demanded the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian
assassin of Robert Kennedy, as well as terrorists
being held in Israeli and European prisons. President Nixon refused to
negotiate. The tape was of conversations between Arafat in Beirut and his
thugs in Khartoum. Execute the diplomats, ordered Arafat. The terrorists
obeyed, machine gunning the unarmed, hapless Noel and Moore. They also
killed a Belgium diplomat. The authenticity of the tape was verified in
U.S. laboratories by both the State Department and the White House.

On March 2, 1973, around 8:00pm (local) --Abu-Iyad
called Abu-Ghassan and gave him the Cold River [Nahr al-Bard] code: "Remember
Nahr al-Bard. The people's blood in the Nahr al-Bard is screaming for revenge.
These are our final orders. We and the world are watching you." The execution
took place on 9:06. (Reportedly, about half an hour later than planned
because Abu-Tariq let the Americans write last letters and wills.) A few
minutes later, when the international media still did not report the killing,
Beirut wanted to make sure that the executions took place. Arafat himself
did the talking to Abu-Ghassan. He asked him if he received the code word
Nahr al-Bard and if he understood what it meant. Abu-Ghassan assured Arafat
that he had understood everything and that his -- Arafat's -- orders had
already been carried out fully.

Sarah Ann Moore died
in March 2007 and was laid to rest with her hero in Arlington National
Cemetery.